Don't have time right now to read the entire thread. So forgive me if it's already been suggested. How about the ability to assign more than one pilot and aircraft to a single job? Is that even possible software-speaking?

hi everyone, been stewing on this suggestion for a month or so now and thought i would finally make my first post. I know there have been plenty of posts about making ai pilots do multiple jobs or multiple ai pilots doing one job, but one way i see this possible is to have a way to edit an ai pilot's tasks in the ops window. Rather than just adding or un-assigning jobs to ai pilots you could add or remove individual tasks to an ai pilot.

You would only need 3 command options, an unload command, a load command, and a fly to command. The current time restrictions on ai pilots loading/unloading could still be maintained, but giving us more flexibility with ai pilots and a more hands on planning role.

eg. load cargo a at airport x, position to airport y, load cargo b, position to airport c, unload cargo a, unload cargo b. if cargo a was large you could then assign another pilot to load cargo a at airport x, fly to airport c and unload.

This could also help eliminate empty return legs for large cargo jobs, and also would get rid of the need to use ai pilots manually when caught out in a sticky situation (which is a way to get around loading and unloading times).

It would be very helpful to have the LAT/LON coords on the job info screen when selecting jobs (like CP used to have it). I use paper charts and finding the airports can be difficult since frequently the codes used in MSFS are different than the ones used on the charts (for small airports). Also just knowing which chart to pull out and look at in the first place sometimes is not clear on the longer jobs without this info.

Having more control over the AI pilots routing would be nice too. Sometimes they fly A-B-A-C-A when they could fly A-B-C-A.

Being able to have AI pilots fly with less than full tanks would be great. As it is I've altered the tank sizes in the config files which enables them to haul more, but my range is then reduced. A user configurable variable in the aircraft info screen such as, "Max AI fuel load" would be a better solution.

Lastly I would like to be able to set the airport size for job generation on individual aircraft rather than globally.

It would be very helpful to have the LAT/LON coords on the job info screen when selecting jobs (like CP used to have it). I use paper charts and finding the airports can be difficult since frequently the codes used in MSFS are different than the ones used on the charts (for small airports). Also just knowing which chart to pull out and look at in the first place sometimes is not clear on the longer jobs without this info.

I found a pretty good workaround for this.

Download Lee Swordy's freeware TTools (Traffic Tools). When you unzip it there is a utility called AirportFinder.exe. Run that once and it creates a text file of all the nearly 24,000 airports in FS9 with the ICAO code, latitude, longitude and elevation. It's just a flat text file and though it is large, Notepad and it's "Find" feature handle it just fine. Plug in the ICAO code and it takes you to that line of the list. Very handy.

I don't think it works with FSX, but if you have FS9 on your PC you'll have most of the airports in the world anyway. I know FSX added some but probably not anywhere you'd ever really go.

I would like to add my support to the weather suggestions.... If not real world weather then maybe a random selection from the default options,,,, Varied weather would i think enhance a an already good product....

I'm not going to be adding weather - use FS weather or ActiveSky instead. One of the problems with setting weather via FSUIPC is that it can be crazily unrealistic, or worse that the weather is the same all over the globe.

As AH allows you to stop at any airfield, it's not practical for me to re-create ActiveSky, and only having weather at a particular destination airport, but not at one 20 miles away would seem silly.

AirHauler DeveloperFor AH2 queries - PLEASE USE THE EA Forums as the first port of call.

My thoughts are to bring a little more realism into the A1 pilots situation. Already mentioned is the hours they can operate before a rest period. AH is already monitoring flight times towards 100 hour checks, so realy I assume its not a lt different from that.

In addition, once you get beyond the size of a Caravan etc, in the real world you will have 2 pilots per aircraft. In the game as it stands now earning money for the pilots wages is relatively minor, so manpower is not an issue, but if you add these two ideas into the product. It will make the programming quite a bit more complicated, but probably a lot more realistic. The degree of difficulty would really go up.

I'm not a computer buff, so I have no idea whether this would work, or perhaps the degree of difficulty this would take it too would not be acceptable for a lot of people, but presumably this could be intigrated int the Career mode type operation.

Just sme thoughts from an ex pilot who is enjoying the game.

John

A really valid point because not only is the copilot required, but it increases your operating costs. And to carry it a step further, some aircraft, e.g. the L1049 Constellation, C-130, et al, also require a flight engineer. I fly the Connie a lot and can assure you that while I could get along without the copilot most of the time, the flight engineer is indispensable!

1. If possible, I'd like to have a filter function added to the job generator to allow certain airfield types only, like Water or Dirt. I had the idea of starting a floatplane service, but it really isn't feasible in the current shape of AH.

2. Again, if possible, I'd like to see added the ability to assign more than one aircrew/aircraft combo to a single job. For example, if I had a job worth $100,000 with a weight of 10,000lbs, and two aircraft with a 5,000lbs payload capacity, I'd like to be able to assign both aircraft to the job with either 2 AI or 1 AI and myself in the other ship.

I had the idea of starting a floatplane service, but it really isn't feasible in the current shape of AH

You'd be surprised how little water runways are in FS. There's not very many. Brian is the floats master around here, and added many "runways" to various bits of scenery - use the search function and you should spot them. Very impressive scenery too which I think is freeware (not by Brian).

As regards multiple AI on jobs - that was in about 4 versions ago, but due to a bug with lazy pilots, it all went pear shaped! (the weekend of "free" reputation etc etc..).

It will make a re-appearance, but I can't say when (might even have to wait for AH2.0).

AirHauler DeveloperFor AH2 queries - PLEASE USE THE EA Forums as the first port of call.

That makes me ill just to read. I owe 50 grand in student loans and she's just throwing money away! The thing that makes me the sickest, is that she isn't even that upset, I'd never be able to sleep in the new bed.

When an AirFrame meeds repairing it is taken out of service for the lenght of time it takes to make good the repair ... Not just clicking on repair and it is done instantly and back in service .. so if the repair takes 2 days , you cant use this aircraft for that period.

A max number of hours in a day that all pilots can fly ( AI and Human ) as in the real word you can't fly 24/7

When an AirFrame meeds repairing it is taken out of service for the lenght of time it takes to make good the repair ... Not just clicking on repair and it is done instantly and back in service .. so if the repair takes 2 days , you cant use this aircraft for that period.

Covered this before - AI pilots are subject to repair delays (up to 48 hours in some cases).

A max number of hours in a day that all pilots can fly ( AI and Human ) as in the real word you can't fly 24/7

AI pilot limits will probably be in a future version.

There will never be anything which prevents a human pilot flying when he/she wants to - that's massively counterproductive.

AirHauler DeveloperFor AH2 queries - PLEASE USE THE EA Forums as the first port of call.

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